Background: Lung transplantation has been accepted widely as therapy for end-stage pulmonary lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM); however, single-center and national experience is limited due to the rarity of LAM.
Methods: We report the recent European experience of lung transplantation for LAM. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to 30 European lung transplant centers to evaluate patients who underwent primary lung transplantation for LAM (1997 to 2007).
Results: Seventy percent of centers responded to the questionnaire. A total of 61 lung transplants were undertaken in women only, with mean age at transplant 41.3 years (SD 5.1). Centers performed a median of 2 (0 to 9) transplant operations. Severe pleural adhesions were the most common intra-operative complication. Early deaths (N = 6) were due to primary graft or multiple-organ failure or sepsis. Twelve recipients were diagnosed with bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome at a median of 20 months (range 10 to 86 months) post-transplant. LAM-related complications included renal angiomyolipoma and pneumothorax in the native lung. Recurrence of LAM occurred in 4 recipients. As of December 2007, actuarial Kaplan-Meier survival was 79% at 1 year and 73% at 3 years post-transplant.
Conclusions: Post-transplant outcome for pulmonary LAM in the recent era appears to have improved compared with the previous era. LAM-related complications remain common, but recurrence of LAM in the allograft is rare.